Outstanding Volunteer: Libby King

Published: November 28, 2005 | 2850th good news item since 2003

King has been a volunteer for the local Winter Haven branch of the American Red Cross since 1980.

“The Red Cross goes out and just does things for anybody, anywhere. There are no rules, regulations or standards. We just go out and help whoever needs help,” she said. [Champions of Charity: War and the Rise of the Red Cross]

While many Florida residents are hunkering down during a hurricane, King and the other Red Cross volunteers are put on alert and may embark on disaster-relief trips to deliver food and water to people in the affected areas when the weather clears.

One of her most memorable relief trips took place during the hurricanes of 2004, which left hundreds of people in Polk County without food or shelter.

“When the hurricanes came last year, we went out to Fort Meade, and the people we stopped and helped would say `Don’t give me too much, the people down the road need more,’ and those are people standing in knee-deep water. You don’t find appreciation like that too often.” [Hurricane Katrina: Stories of Rescue, Recovery and Rebuilding in the Eye of the Storm]

King also has been a Red Cross volunteer at Winter Haven Hospital since 1987, where she works at the front desk twice a week.

Published in Volunteer
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